B2B Marketing & Sales Glossary
The terms your revenue team uses every day — defined without the jargon. Browse by category below, or jump to a specific term to get the definition, why it matters, a real example, and how it ties to your go-to-market stack.
ICP & Targeting
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)A description of the perfect customer that would benefit most from your product.ICP-shaped filteringNarrowing a dataset or list to records matching an Ideal Customer Profile.FirmographicsCompany attributes used to segment, score, and route B2B accounts.TechnographicsThe technologies and tools a company uses, used for ICP fit and sales timing.Buyer personaA semi-fictional representation of the ideal individual decision-maker at a target account.Account-based marketing (ABM)A B2B strategy that treats individual accounts as markets of one.Total Addressable Market (TAM)The total revenue opportunity available if every potential customer bought your product.Lookalike audienceAn audience built by finding accounts or contacts similar to an existing high-value seed set.
Firmographics & Data Enrichment
Data enrichmentAppending missing or upgrading incomplete fields on contact and account records.Contact intelligenceData and insights about individual contacts — roles, seniority, and engagement context.Seniority tierA rank classifying a contact's level of authority — individual contributor through C-suite.Headcount bandingCategorizing companies into employee-count ranges for ICP filtering and segmentation.Revenue bandingCategorizing companies into revenue ranges for ICP matching and prioritization.Industry classificationThe standard categorization of a company's primary business sector.Data accuracyThe degree to which contact and account data matches ground truth.Data decayThe rate at which contact and account data becomes inaccurate over time.
Intent & Buying Signals
Buying signalsObservable actions that indicate a company or contact is actively researching a purchase.Intent dataBehavioral data that reveals which accounts are researching a category or product.Attending signalsData that a person or company has registered for, or attended, a specific event.Trigger eventsMajor company changes that create a window for sales outreach.Engagement scoringA numerical score representing a contact or account's level of interaction with your brand.Surging accountsAccounts showing a sudden increase in engagement or intent signals.First-party vs third-party intentThe distinction between intent data collected from your own channels vs aggregated from external sources.Hiring triggersNew job postings or hires that signal organizational priorities and budget shifts.Funding announcementsPublic news of a company raising capital, often a strong signal of growth-stage budget availability.
Outbound & Outreach
Warm outboundOutreach to a prospect who has already shown interest or fit through a prior signal.Cold outboundOutreach to a prospect who has had no prior contact or interaction with your brand.Multi-channel sequencingAn outbound cadence that uses multiple channels — email, phone, social, direct mail — in a choreographed sequence.Sales cadenceA structured sequence of touches over time designed to convert a prospect into a meeting.Cold emailAn unsolicited email sent to a prospect with no prior relationship, typically as part of an outbound sequence.Sales Development Representative (SDR)A role focused on outbound prospecting and qualifying leads for the sales team.Personalization at scaleThe practice of customizing outbound messaging for each prospect without sacrificing volume.Reply rateThe percentage of outbound emails that receive a human reply, a core efficiency metric for SDR teams.Meeting-show rateThe percentage of booked meetings where the prospect actually shows up.
Pipeline & Revenue Operations
Revenue Operations (RevOps)The integrated function that aligns sales, marketing, and customer success operations.Pipeline coverageA ratio measuring whether the value of open pipeline is sufficient to meet revenue targets.MQL and SQLMarketing-Qualified Lead and Sales-Qualified Lead — standard stages in the B2B lead funnel.Stage-to-stage conversionThe rate at which deals progress from one pipeline stage to the next.Lead routingThe automated assignment of leads to the right sales rep or team based on defined rules.CRM (Customer Relationship Management)The system of record for managing customer interactions and sales pipeline.Marketing Automation Platform (MAP)Software that automates marketing campaigns, lead nurturing, and multi-channel engagement.AttributionAssigning revenue credit to the marketing and sales touches that influenced a deal.
Events & Field Marketing
Field marketingMarketing that targets prospects through in-person events, conferences, and local gatherings.Pre-event outboundOutreach to registered or expected conference attendees before the event starts.On-site routingThe process of directing the right team members to meet specific prospects at an event.Post-event nurtureThe follow-up sequence for prospects met or identified at a conference.Conference attendee listA structured dataset of companies and people registered for or attending a conference.Exhibitor and sponsor dataInformation about companies that exhibit or sponsor conferences, useful for partnership and competitive intelligence.Event ROIThe measurable return from conference and event investments, typically pipeline generated per dollar spent.Side-event strategyHosting or co-sponsoring smaller, exclusive gatherings alongside major conferences.